Nestor and Mirnyi reach French Open doubles final; Peliwo moves to junior semi

06/07/2012 12:42 EDT
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Updated
08/07/2012 05:12 EDT

CP

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PARIS - Canadian Daniel Nestor and partner Max Mirnyi of Belarus reached a third straight French Open final Thursday with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Italians Daniele Bracciali and Potito Starace.

Nestor and Mirnyi won the trophy last year, and the 39-year-old from Toronto claimed it in 2010 with former partner Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia.

Nestor, winner of more doubles titles than any other man in the game, claimed his first trophy at Roland Garros in 2007 with Mark Knowles of the Bahamas. He and Knowles also lost the 2008 final.

Nestor and Mirnyi will face off in the Saturday final against the winner from a semi between second-seed brothers Bob and Mike Bryan of the U.S., who beat Pakistani Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).

The Nestor team won in 76 minutes with seven aces and breaks on three of 11 opportunities against the Italians, whom they defeated in an Australian Open third round meeting four months ago.

In the junior event, Vancouver’s Filip Peliwo continued his bid to become the first Canadian to win a boys title as he moved into the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-1 win over American Noah Rubin.

"We're playing well, but we have to keep our best for the final," said Nestor. "We're playing the Bryans who beat us pretty badly in Monte Carlo, we'd love to get that one back.

"But we have to play to win because that's the only way it's going to happen."